Virtual meetings

ABSTRACT

A system for managing virtual meetings includes a processor operative to initiate participation with a first user interface in a first meeting, initiate participation with the first user interface in a second meeting, determining whether attention of a user is directed towards the first meeting or the second meeting, and configure the user interface such that the user interacts with meeting resources associated with the first meeting responsive to determining that the attention of the user is directed towards the first meeting.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is a continuation application of and claims priority from U.S.application Ser. No. 13/661,230, filed on Oct. 26, 2012, the entirecontents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to virtual meetings, and morespecifically, to methods and systems involving participating in multiplevirtual meetings.

DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART

Virtual meetings may be conducted between any number of participantsusing a variety of different technologies. Virtual meetings allowparticipants to exchange information when located in different locationsusing teleconferencing, videoconferencing and other virtual presencetechnologies.

BRIEF SUMMARY

According to one embodiment of the present invention, a system formanaging virtual meetings includes a processor operative to initiateparticipation with a first user interface in a first meeting, initiateparticipation with the first user interface in a second meeting,determining whether attention of a user is directed towards the firstmeeting or the second meeting, and configure the user interface suchthat the user interacts with meeting resources associated with the firstmeeting responsive to determining that the attention of the user isdirected towards the first meeting.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, a system formanaging virtual meetings includes a processor operative to initiateparticipation with a first user interface in a first meeting, initiateparticipation with the first user interface in a second meeting,calculate a first composite interest value (CIV) associated with thefirst meeting and a second CIV associated with the second meeting,determine whether the first CIV is greater than the second CIV, andconfigure the user interface such that the user interacts with meetingresources associated with the first meeting responsive to determiningthat first CIV is greater than the second CIV.

According to yet another embodiment of the present invention, a systemfor managing virtual meetings includes a processor operative to initiateparticipation with a first user interface in a first meeting, calculatea first composite interest value (CIV) associated with the firstmeeting, calculate a second CIV associated with a second meeting,determine whether the second CIV is greater than a threshold value, andinitiate participation with the first user interface in the secondmeeting responsive to determining that the second CIV is greater thanthe threshold value.

Additional features and advantages are realized through the techniquesof the present invention. Other embodiments and aspects of the inventionare described in detail herein and are considered a part of the claimedinvention. For a better understanding of the invention with theadvantages and the features, refer to the description and to thedrawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

The subject matter which is regarded as the invention is particularlypointed out and distinctly claimed in the claims at the conclusion ofthe specification. The forgoing and other features, and advantages ofthe invention are apparent from the following detailed description takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a virtual meeting system.

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a user interface.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of another virtual meetingsystem.

FIG. 4 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary method for managinguser participation in multiple meetings.

FIG. 5 illustrates a block diagram of another exemplary method formanaging user participation in multiple meetings.

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a user interface.

FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary configuration of the user interface.

FIG. 8 illustrates another exemplary configuration of the userinterface.

FIG. 9 illustrates another exemplary configuration of the userinterface.

FIGS. 10A and 10B illustrate a block diagram of another exemplary methodof operation of the user interface.

FIG. 11 illustrates a block diagram of another exemplary method ofoperation of the user interface.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The prevalence and availability of teleconferencing, videoconferencing,and virtual presence technologies allows people to participate inmeetings without being personally present in a particular meetinglocation. Typically, if a participant has access to a telephone or acomputer that may be communicatively connected to the Internet, the usermay participate in the meetings regardless of their location. Though thelocation of a meeting has become less relevant, the time of the meetingcontinues to constrain participants. Thus, scheduling conflicts mayresult in a user having multiple meeting obligations at the same time.The systems and methods described below provide meeting participantswith an ability to substantively participate in multiple meetingsoccurring at the same time.

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a virtual meeting system100 that may include any number of user interfaces 102. In theillustrated embodiment, the user interfaces 102 may include any suitablecommunications device or number of devices such as, for example, atelephone, a smartphone or tablet, a personal computer, a speakerphone,a videoconferencing system, or any other communications device. The userinterfaces 102 may be communicatively connected via a network or theInternet. In the illustrated embodiment, a server 104 is used tofacilitate communications between some of the user interfaces 102;however, such a server 104 may not be necessary in some virtualmeetings, or may not be used by a particular user interface 102 in aparticular meeting. For example, the user interface B 102 b may affect acommunicative connection with the user interface A 102 a to participatein a particular meeting while the user interface A 102 a communicateswith the user interfaces 102 c and 102 d via the server 104.

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a user interface 102. Theuser interface 102 may include a processor 202 communicatively connectedto a display device, 204, input devices 206, memory 208, a camera, 308,a speaker 210, a microphone 212, and sensors 214. The sensors 214 mayinclude any type of sensors such as, for example, motion sensors oraudio sensors that may be operative to collect information or dataassociated with a user's actions or behavior.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of another virtual meetingsystem. In the illustrated embodiment, a first meeting (Meeting 1)includes a server A 104 a that is facilitating a meeting between theuser interfaces 102 a-c. A second meeting (Meeting 2) is in progress atthe same time as the second meeting and includes a server B 104 b thatis facilitating a meeting between the user interfaces 102 a and 102 d-f.Thus, the user interface A 102 a is participating in both the firstmeeting and the second meeting at the same time. The methods and systemsdescribed below provide the user using the user interface 102 a with animproved user interface for participating in the first meeting and thesecond meeting at the same time. Though the illustrated embodimentincludes two meetings, the embodiments described below may be used tofacilitate the user of the user interface 102 a to effectivelyparticipate in any number of meetings occurring during the same timeperiod or overlapping time periods.

In this regard, previous systems may have allowed a user to be connectedto multiple meetings at the same time however, the systems and userinterfaces failed to provide the users with the ability to manage theirparticipation in multiple meetings. For example, the user may be able toview multiple video feeds by, for example arranging windows on acomputer display where each window displayed a different video feed,however the user's attention typically could only be directed to asingle video feed at a time. The textual or audio feeds incur a similarproblem. Though a user may, for example be able to toggle betweenparticular audio outputs, or toggle between which meeting they areproviding verbal, textual, or graphical input the user may only provideinput or receive audio output in one meeting at a time. In other words,though a user interface 102 may provide an ability to be communicativelyconnected to multiple meetings at the same time, the user has a finiteability to actively participate in multiple meetings at the same time.

In a single meeting with multiple users, a particular participant'sinterest may only be needed during a particular time in the meeting. Forexample, an engineer may be participating in a particular meeting toprovide technical advice on a particular subject, or may only be neededto participate if a particular subject arises in the meeting. E.g., if ameeting is scheduled to last an hour, the engineer may only be needed toprovide five minutes of participation. However, in previous systems, theengineer must direct their attention to the meeting for the entire hourin order know when they need to participate for five minutes. Thus, theengineer cannot direct their attention to other tasks or virtualmeetings that they may also be participating in.

The systems and methods described below provide a user interface thatfacilitates effective participation in multiple meetings, and allowsother meeting participants to provide input to the user's interface thatmay direct the user's attention to a particular meeting when theirattention or participation in the particular meeting is desired. Forexample, if the participants in the meeting described above decide thatthey would like input from the engineer, they may provide an inputthrough their respective user interfaces 102 that will be received bythe engineer's user interface 102. Such an input may indicate to theengineer that their input is desired, the input may also, for example,toggle the audio and visual feeds on the engineer's user interface 102so that the engineer may actively participate in the meeting. Later, asthe engineer's attention and input is not needed, the engineer's userinterface 102 may direct the engineer's attention to another meeting.

FIG. 4 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary method for managing auser's participation in multiple meetings using a user interface 102 (ofFIG. 1). Referring to FIG. 4, in block 402, participation in a firstmeeting is initiated. Initiating participation may include, for example,affecting a communicative connection between a user interface 102 andother user interfaces 102 that will facilitate the meeting. Meetingresources such as, for example, audio, video, textual, and graphicalcommunications or any combination thereof may be included as meetingresources that are initiated. In block 404, information associated withthe first meeting is presented to the user on the display. The userinterface 102 may be configured to present the meeting resourcesassociated with the meeting to the user. The configuration of the userinterface 102 may include, for example, presenting a video, textual, orgraphical communication to the user on the display. Outputting an audiofeed of the meeting to the user. Configuring input devices, such asvideo, audio or textual input devices such that the user may provideinput and participate in the meeting using the user interface 102.Participation is initiated in a second meeting in block 406, andinformation associated with the second meeting is presented to the useron the display in block 408.

In block 410, the user interface 102 determines whether the user'sattention is directed towards the first meeting or the second meeting.Such a determination may be made using any number of user inputs otherinputs. For example, the user may indicate which meeting they areattentive to by using a mouse or touch screen on a graphical userinterface (GUI) to select a particular meeting (e.g., the first meetingor the second meeting). Alternatively, the user interface 102 may use avideo input or audio input to monitor a user's actions. Such actions mayinclude, for example, where the user's eyes are directed towards on thedisplay (e.g., if the user is looking at a window presenting a videofeed from the first meeting or if the user is looking at another windowpresenting a video feed from the second meeting), body posture, headalignment, or gestures. Audio input may also be used, for example, voicerecognition may be used to determine whether the user has activelyselected the first meeting or the second meeting, or whether the contextof the user's words indicate which meeting the user has become attentiveto. The attention of the user may be quantitatively assessed by the userinterface 102, for example, a user may direct their attention to aportion of the display showing content of the first meeting for aparticular amount of time. Once the user has shown attention to aparticular meeting for a threshold period of time, the user interface102 may determine that the user is attentive to the particular meeting.Such a determination may include number of indicators that cumulativelydefine an attention score associated with each meeting that may becompared to an attention threshold such as, for example, any audio inputor physical indicators or inputs exhibited by the user.

Once the user interface 102 has determined which meeting the user'sattention has been directed towards in block 410, the user interface 102may configure the display and the meeting resources so that the user mayparticipate in the identified meeting in blocks 412 and 414. Once thedisplay and associated meeting resources have been configured in block412 or 414, in block 416, a notification of the user's participation ina particular meeting may be sent to the user interfaces 102 of othermeeting participants. The other user interfaces 102 may display to theirrespective users whether the user is attentive to the first meeting orthe second meeting. The other user interfaces 102 may present the“status” of the user in the meeting using any number of textual,graphical, or audio indicators such as, for example, a graphicalrepresentation of the user, a textual indicator, or visual or videorepresentation of the user. The “status” may be indicated by, forexample, changing the textual, graphical, or audio indicators toindicate whether a particular meeting participant is attentive to aparticular meeting. This change may be gradual or graded in order toconvey some continuous measure of a user's state, such as attention.Thereby, an attention measure ranging from zero to one, may be directlymapped, for example onto a transparency value ranging from zero to oneof a visual representation of the user, such as an avatar in a virtualuniverse.

For example, if the user directs their attention to the first meeting bylooking at the window presenting the first meeting on the display, theuser interface 102, may increase the size or change the position of thewindow providing the video feed from the first meeting. The userinterface 102, may begin outputting an audio feed associated with thefirst meeting, or increase the volume of the audio feed. Textual orgraphical information such as transcripts of the discussion in the firstmeeting or graphical slides or diagrams may also be presented to theuser. If the user's attention changes to another meeting such as thesecond meeting, the user interface 102 may be reconfigured in a similarmanner to facilitate the users more active participation in the secondmeeting. The methods and systems described in FIG. 4 include twomeetings, alternate embodiments may include any number of meetingsmanaged by the user interface 102 in a similar manner.

The textual or graphical information presented to the user may include ahistorical record of the proceedings of a meeting. For example, if auser has not been attentive to a particular meeting, meetingtranscripts, video, graphical, or video content of portions or all ofthe meeting may be presented to the user. Such a presentation allows theuser to be updated with earlier proceedings of the meeting and allowsthe user to contribute to the meeting with a better understanding of theearlier meeting proceedings that were not previously presented to and/ordigested by the user.

While the user is viewing the historical content of a particularmeeting, an indicator may be presented to the meeting participants ontheir respective user interfaces 102 to notify the meeting participantsthat the user is in the process of viewing earlier meeting proceedings.Such an indicator allows the other meeting participants to, for example,wait until the user has “caught up” to the current proceedings beforecontinuing the meeting or engaging the user in the meeting discussion.

FIG. 5 illustrates a block diagram of another method for managing amultiple meetings with a user interface 102. Referring to FIG. 5, inblock 502, participation in a first meeting is initiated. In block 504,information associated with the first meeting is presented to the useron the display. Participation is initiated in a second meeting in block506, and information associated with the second meeting is presented tothe user on the display in block 508.

Once the meetings have been initiated, a composite importance value(CIV) may be calculated to identify the relative importance of the twomeetings (or any number of meetings if the user is participating in morethan two meetings). In this regard, the CIV may include a number offactors such as, for example an automated importance estimate (AIE), auser importance estimate (UIE), and a crowd importance estimate (CIE).The AIE may include for example, latent semantic indexing, the name andnature of the primary speaker (i.e., the speakers importance or positionof importance in the organization), an analysis of the number ofparticipants and the nature of the participants in the meeting, thelocation of the meeting. The UIE may include, for example, a userprofile that includes information with the relevance of participants andtopics of discussion or specific inputs from the user (e.g., a user'sinput as to how important they consider the meeting). The CIE may bedetermined by, for example, crowd sourcing means such as voting bymembers of a team, or peers (e.g., if a user's team vote the meeting“very important” the CIE may be greater), or may be set by a meetingattendee in order to summon the user of the system to the meeting.

The CIV may be computed as a function of the ME, the UIE, and the CIE orother factors where CIV=f(AIE, UIE, CIE). The CIV function may includeweighting factors such that CIV=f(a₁*AIE, a₂*UIE, a₃*CIE), where a₁, a₂,and a₃ are weighting factors.

Referring to FIG. 5, the CIV for each meeting is calculated in block510. In block 512, the user interface 102 determines which meeting has ahigher associated CIV, and the user interface 102 configures the displayand the associated meeting resources for the user to participate in themeeting with the higher associated CIV in blocks 514 and 516. In block518, a notification of the user's participation in a particular meetingmay be sent to the user interfaces 102 of other meeting participants ina similar manner as discussed above in block 416 (of FIG. 4).

The method described in FIG. 5 may be used alone or in combination withthe method described in FIG. 4 to more effectively manage multiplemeetings with the user interface 102. For example, though the userinterface 102 may be configured so that the user may activelyparticipate in the first meeting in block 514 (of FIG. 5), if the user'sattention is directed towards the second meeting as determined in block410 (of FIG. 5), the display may be subsequently configured in block414. The attention of the user as determined in block 410 may also beused as a factor in the CIV calculation. In this regard, a userattention estimate (UAE) may be determined based on a number of userinputs similar to the inputs described above in FIG. 4. The CIV mayinclude the UAE where CIV=f(a₁*AIE, a₂*UIE, a₃*CIE, a₄*UAE). The weightsof the “a” values may be configured by the user based on the user'spreferences. Alternatively, the weights of the “a” values may beadjusted by the user interface 102 according to identified habits orprevalent behaviors of the user.

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a user interface 102. Theuser interface 102 includes a first display 204 a and a second display204 b, a camera 208, a microphone 212, and a speaker 210. The firstdisplay is presenting a window 602 that includes a video feed associatedwith the first meeting, a window 604 that is displaying text and/orgraphics associated with the first meeting, a window 606 that isdisplaying a video feed associated with the second meeting, and a window608 that includes text and/or graphics associated with the secondmeeting. A participant status indicator 610 may be presented to theuser. The participant status indicator 610 may include an identifiersuch as, a textual, or graphical identifier of participants in aparticular meeting. The participant status indicator 610 may indicate tothe user the status or attention of other meeting participants in theassociated meeting. For example, another meeting participant may have alow participation in or attention to a particular meeting (E.g., Themeeting participant is participating in another meeting and is notactively attentive to the associated meeting). In such an example, theparticipant's status indicator 610 would indicate to other meetingparticipants the relatively low participation of the user in themeeting.

FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary configuration of the user interface 102that may be presented to a user in for example blocks 412 (of FIG. 4) or514 (of FIG. 5). Referring to FIG. 7, window 602 that includes a videofeed associated with the first meeting has been moved to the seconddisplay 204 b and increased in size. The window 604 that includes textand/or graphical data associated with the first meeting has been movedand increased in size in the first display 204 a. The windows 606 and608 that are associated with the second meeting have been shifted to asecondary position in the first display 204 a. The speaker 210 may beconfigured to output audio associated with the first meeting, and themicrophone and camera, may be configured to receive inputs from the userthat may be presented to other participants in the first meeting. Otherinput devices such as, for example, keyboards or GUI input devices maybe configured to provide user inputs to the first meeting participants.

FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary configuration of the user interface 102that may be presented to a user as in for example blocks 414 (of FIG. 4)or 516 (of FIG. 5). Referring to FIG. 8, the user interface 102 has beenconfigured for the user to more actively participate in the secondmeeting. The window 602 that includes a video feed associated with thefirst meeting has been moved to the first display 204 b and decreased insize. The window 604 that includes text and/or graphical data associatedwith the first meeting has been moved and decreased in size in the firstdisplay 204 a. The window 606 that is associated with a video feed ofthe second meeting has been moved to the second display 204 b andincreased in size an the window 608 that includes text and/or graphicaldata associated with the second meeting has been moved and increased insize in the first display 204 a. The speaker 210 may be configured tooutput audio associated with the first meeting, and the microphone andcamera, may be configured to receive inputs from the user that may bepresented to other participants in the first meeting. Other inputdevices, such as, for example keyboards or GUI input devices may beconfigured to provide user inputs to the first meeting participants.

Though the illustrated embodiments of FIGS. 6-8 include two displays 204alternate embodiments of the user interface 102 may include, forexample, a single display or multiple displays. The hardware associatedwith the user interface 102 may include any type of input or outputdevices. For example, the methods described above, may be performed on asmartphone or tablet with a GUI that may present any number of meetingresources from multiple meetings that may be configured for a variety oflevels of participation by a user. The exemplary configurations of theuser interface 102 are merely examples, any suitable arrangement of thegraphical, audio, or video outputs and inputs may be used responsive tothe determinations described in FIGS. 4 and 5. These configurations maybe changed by a user or system administrator based on the user'spreferences.

A user may also participate in multiple meetings using different meetingresources, for example, referring to FIG. 8, the user may input text orother user inputs in the window 604 that is associated with the firstmeeting while listening to an audio feed from the second meeting.

The methods described above may also be used and applied to a singlemeeting. For example, the CIV values or user attention estimates may beused while the user is participating in a single virtual meeting andalso a real meeting or other real tasks. For example, FIG. 9 illustratesan exemplary configuration of the user interface similar to theconfiguration described above in FIG. 6. The user interface 102 includesan email program that is presented in a window on the second display 204b. The user may interact with a task window 902 such as, for example, anemail program to conduct, for example, business not related to the firstmeeting or the second meeting. When the user's attention is directedtowards one of the meetings in a similar manner as described above inFIG. 7, the user interface 102 may be configured for more active userparticipation in a particular meeting. Thus, a user may perform anydesired task while waiting for their needed participation in a meetingor prior to directing their attention to a particular meeting.

FIGS. 10A and 10B illustrate a block diagram of another exemplary methodof operation of the user interface 102 (of FIG. 1). In this regard, auser may be invited to participate in a third meeting according to therelative CIV value of the third meeting and the other meetings the usermay be participating in. Referring to FIG. 10A, the blocks 1002 to 108are similar to the blocks 502-510 described above in FIG. 5. In block1008 a CIV is calculated for a second meeting. The second meeting may bea meeting that the user is not participating in, but may be invited toby other users in the second meeting. In block 1010, the CIV of thesecond meeting is compared to a threshold value. The threshold value maybe a value set by the user or the system administrator. Alternatively,the threshold value may be determined by the CIV values of the othermeetings the user is participating in. For example, the highest CIVvalue of the other meetings the user is participating in may be set asthe threshold value. Referring to FIG. 10B, in block 1002, the userinterface 102 determines whether the CIV of the second meeting isgreater than the threshold value. If yes, participation in the secondmeeting is initiated in block 1014, and information associated with thesecond meeting is presented to the user on the display 1016. In block1018, the meeting having the highest CIV value is identified bycomparing the CIV values of the meetings (e.g., comparing the CIV of thefirst meeting with the second meeting or comparing the CIVs of the firstmeeting, the second meeting and a third meeting). The display and theuser interface are configured in block 1020 for the user to participatein the identified meeting with the highest CIV value. In block 1022, anotification of the user's participation in a particular meeting may besent to the user interfaces 102 of other meeting participants in asimilar manner as discussed above in block 416 (of FIG. 4).

FIG. 11 illustrates a block diagram of another exemplary method ofoperation of the user interface 102 (of FIG. 1). In this regard, inblock 1102 participation is initiated in a first meeting. Informationassociated with the first meeting is present to the user on the displayin block 1104. In block 1106, a CIV is calculated for the first meeting.In block 1108, the CIV associated with the first meeting is compared toa threshold value. Block 1110 determines whether the CIV of the firstmeeting is less than the threshold value. If yes, in block 1112, theparticipation of the user in the first meeting is terminated. In block1114, a notification that the user has terminated participation in thefirst meeting may be sent to the user interfaces 102 of the othermeeting participants.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the presentinvention may be embodied as a system, method or computer programproduct. Accordingly, aspects of the present invention may take the formof an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment(including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or anembodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may allgenerally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module” or “system.”Furthermore, aspects of the present invention may take the form of acomputer program product embodied in one or more computer readablemedium(s) having computer readable program code embodied thereon. Anycombination of one or more computer readable medium(s) may be utilized.The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signal medium ora computer readable storage medium. A computer readable storage mediummay be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic,optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus,or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specificexamples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer readable storage mediumwould include the following: an electrical connection having one or morewires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory(RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-onlymemory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compactdisc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magneticstorage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. In thecontext of this document, a computer readable storage medium may be anytangible medium that can contain, or store a program for use by or inconnection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

A computer readable signal medium may include a propagated data signalwith computer readable program code embodied therein, for example, inbaseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated signal may takeany of a variety of forms, including, but not limited to,electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof. Acomputer readable signal medium may be any computer readable medium thatis not a computer readable storage medium and that can communicate,propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with aninstruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

Program code embodied on a computer readable medium may be transmittedusing any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless,wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination ofthe foregoing.

Computer program code for carrying out operations for aspects of thepresent invention may be written in any combination of one or moreprogramming languages, including an object oriented programming languagesuch as Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like and conventional proceduralprogramming languages, such as the “C” programming language or similarprogramming languages. The program code may execute entirely on theuser's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alonesoftware package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remotecomputer or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latterscenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computerthrough any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or awide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an externalcomputer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet ServiceProvider).

Aspects of the present invention are described below with reference toflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus(systems) and computer program products according to embodiments of theinvention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in theflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented bycomputer program instructions. These computer program instructions maybe provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, specialpurpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus toproduce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via theprocessor of the computer or other programmable data processingapparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified inthe flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks. These computerprogram instructions may also be stored in a computer readable mediumthat can direct a computer, other programmable data processingapparatus, or other devices to function in a particular manner, suchthat the instructions stored in the computer readable medium produce anarticle of manufacture including instructions which implement thefunction/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block orblocks. The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto acomputer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other devicesto cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer,other programmable apparatus or other devices to produce a computerimplemented process such that the instructions which execute on thecomputer or other programmable apparatus provide processes forimplementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks. The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figuresillustrate the architecture, functionality, and operation of possibleimplementations of systems, methods and computer program productsaccording to various embodiments of the present invention. In thisregard, each block in the flowchart or block diagrams may represent amodule, segment, or portion of code, which comprises one or moreexecutable instructions for implementing the specified logicalfunction(s). It should also be noted that, in some alternativeimplementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of theorder noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in successionmay, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks maysometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon thefunctionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of theblock diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocksin the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implementedby special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specifiedfunctions or acts, or combinations of special purpose hardware andcomputer instructions.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particularembodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. Asused herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended toinclude the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicatesotherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises”and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify thepresence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements,and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of oneor more other features, integers, steps, operations, element components,and/or groups thereof.

The corresponding structures, materials, acts, and equivalents of allmeans or step plus function elements in the claims below are intended toinclude any structure, material, or act for performing the function incombination with other claimed elements as specifically claimed. Thedescription of the present invention has been presented for purposes ofillustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive orlimited to the invention in the form disclosed. Many modifications andvariations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the artwithout departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. Theembodiment was chosen and described in order to best explain theprinciples of the invention and the practical application, and to enableothers of ordinary skill in the art to understand the invention forvarious embodiments with various modifications as are suited to theparticular use contemplated.

The flow diagrams depicted herein are just one example. There may bemany variations to this diagram or the steps (or operations) describedtherein without departing from the spirit of the invention. Forinstance, the steps may be performed in a differing order or steps maybe added, deleted or modified. All of these variations are considered apart of the claimed invention.

While the preferred embodiment to the invention had been described, itwill be understood that those skilled in the art, both now and in thefuture, may make various improvements and enhancements which fall withinthe scope of the claims which follow. These claims should be construedto maintain the proper protection for the invention first described.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for managing virtual meetings, thesystem comprising a processor operative to: initiate participation witha first user interface in a first meeting; initiate participation withthe first user interface in a second meeting; determining whetherattention of a user is directed towards the first meeting or the secondmeeting; and configure the user interface such that the user interactswith meeting resources associated with the first meeting responsive todetermining that the attention of the user is directed towards the firstmeeting.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is furtheroperative to configure the user interface such that the user interactswith meeting resources associated with the second meeting responsive todetermining that the attention of the user is directed towards thesecond meeting.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor isfurther operative to present information associated with the firstmeeting on a display of the first user interface following initiatingparticipation with the first user interface in the first meeting.
 4. Thesystem of claim 3, wherein the processor is further operative to presentinformation associated with the second meeting on a display of the firstuser interface following initiating participation with the first userinterface in the second meeting.
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein theattention of the user is determined by identifying whether the user islooking at the information associated with the first meeting or theinformation associated with the second meeting.
 6. The system of claim1, wherein the configuring the user interface such that the userinteracts with meeting resources associated with the first meetingincludes outputting an audio feed associated with the first meeting tothe user via the user interface.
 7. A system for managing virtualmeetings, the system comprising a processor operative to: initiateparticipation with a first user interface in a first meeting; initiateparticipation with the first user interface in a second meeting;calculate a first composite interest value (CIV) associated with thefirst meeting and a second CIV associated with the second meeting;determine whether the first CIV is greater than the second CIV; andconfigure the user interface such that the user interacts with meetingresources associated with the first meeting responsive to determiningthat first CIV is greater than the second CIV.
 8. The system of claim 7,wherein the processor is further operative to configure the userinterface such that the user interacts with meeting resources associatedwith the second meeting responsive to determining that second CIV isgreater than the first CIV.
 9. The system of claim 7, wherein the firstCIV is a function of an automatic importance estimate (AIE), theautomatic importance estimate including a value associated with arelative importance of the subject matter of the first meeting.
 10. Thesystem of claim 7, wherein the first CIV is a function of an automaticimportance estimate (AIE), the automatic importance estimate including avalue associated with a relative importance of the participants of thefirst meeting.
 11. The system of claim 7, wherein the first CIV is afunction of an automatic importance estimate (AIE), the automaticimportance estimate including a value associated with a number ofparticipants of the first meeting.
 12. The system of claim 7, whereinthe first CIV is a function of an user importance estimate (UIE), theuser importance estimate including a value associated with dataassociated with the meeting and data associated with a user profileassociated with the user.
 13. The system of claim 7, wherein the firstCIV is a function of a crowd importance estimate (CIE), the crowdimportance estimate including a value associated with an importancevalue of the meeting determined a plurality of participants in themeeting.
 14. The system of claim 7, wherein the first CIV is a functionof an ME, a UIE, and a CIE.
 15. The system of claim 7, wherein theprocessor is further operative to present information associated withthe first meeting on a display of the first user interface followinginitiating participation with the first user interface in the firstmeeting.
 16. The system of claim 15, wherein the processor is furtheroperative to present information associated with the second meeting on adisplay of the first user interface following initiating participationwith the first user interface in the second meeting.
 17. The system ofclaim 7, wherein the configuring the user interface such that the userinteracts with meeting resources associated with the first meetingincludes outputting an audio feed associated with the first meeting tothe user via the user interface.
 18. A system for managing virtualmeetings, the system comprising a processor operative to: initiateparticipation with a first user interface in a first meeting; calculatea first composite interest value (CIV) associated with the firstmeeting; calculate a second CIV associated with a second meeting;determine whether the second CIV is greater than a threshold value; andinitiate participation with the first user interface in the secondmeeting responsive to determining that the second CIV is greater thanthe threshold value.
 19. The system of claim 18, wherein the processoris further operative to: identify a CIV with the greatest value; andconfigure the user interface such that the user interacts with meetingresources associated with the meeting responsive associated with theidentified CIV with the greatest value.
 20. The system of claim 19,wherein the processor is further operative to: identify a CIV with avalue less than a second threshold value; and terminate a meetingassociated with the identified CIV having a value less than the secondthreshold value.